Mariners wins the farewell match of Barreto to finish I league in 4th place

Mariners ended their I league campaign with a win as they beat Pune FC 2-0 in a match played at the Salt Lake Stadium. Jose Barreto and Odafa Okolie were the scorers for McDowell Mohun Bagan. This match was also the farewell match of Jose Ramirez Barreto.

The win helped McDowell Mohun Bagan finish the I-League in 4th place with 47 points from 26 matches.

With Sangram Mukherjee as the goalkeeper, Anwar Ali and Rakesh Masih played as the 2 stopper-backs, while Surkumar Singh and Rahim Nabi operated down the flanks. Jewel Raja and Sunil Chhetri were in charge of central midfield with Hudson Lima and Manish Maithani playing as left and right half respectively. Upfront, it was Odafa Okolie and Jose Barreto.

The supporters and fans went into a frenzy as Jose Barreto gave Mariners the lead in the 6th minute. It was the perfect start to the farewell match. Getting a through pass from Hudson Lima, Jose Barreto made a swift run to enter the box and then took a left footed well-placed grounder from acute angle that beat the outstretched hands of Subrata Pal and went into the far corner of the goal.

A minute later, Jose Barreto nicely chipped the ball towards Manish Maithani in opponent box, but the ball got cleared for corner. From Lima's resultant corner, Sunil Chhetri's header was cleared from goalline.

Due to a mistake made by Rakesh Masih, as he failed to trap the ball properly inside Mariners penalty box, Pune FC player got the ball in an advantageous position, but somehow the ball got cleared. Jose Barreto sent another brilliant through pass towards Hudson Lima, but his left footed shot was saved by Subrata Pal.

Mariners continued to attack and Subrata Pal made 2 back-to-back saves as both times he denied Odafa's shot from going in. Sangram made the 1st save of the match in the 35th minute as Subhash Singh took a free header.

Post-breather, Jewel Raja took few good shots at opponent goal, but failed to find the target. Rakesh Masih made a good tackle to avert danger inside Mariners' penalty box. Odafa again was unlucky as within a gap of 1 minute, he took 2 shots at Pune FC goal, but it got blocked by defence.

Mariners made the 1st change as Snehasish Chakraborty came in place of Hudson Lima in the 62nd minute. In the 66th minute, Jose Barreto got a golden opportunity to score another goal from Odafa's through pass, but his right footed shot went wide of the goal.

From Odafa's through pass, Jewel Raja barged into the Pune FC penalty box but his flick was brilliantly saved by Subrata Pal coming out of charge.

Sangram made a good fist to prevent Lester Fernandez' long ranger shot from going in.

Jose Barreto once again was in the thick of action in the 75th minute. Surkumar released the ball towards Barreto in the right flank, who got past 1 defender, entered the box and took a right footed shot from acute angle, that beat Subrata Pal but unluckily just went over the target.

Manish Bharghav replaced Manish Maithani in the 76th minute. Rahim Nabi made a good overlap run, played a wall pass with Odafa Okolie but could not connect his shot properly, thus a good effort of Nabi went abegging.

Odafa took another powerful right footed shot that went inches over the target in the 85th minute.

Technical Director Subrata Bhattacharya made the last change of the match as he brought in Ashim Biswas in place of Sunil Chhetri in the 85th minute.

Odafa at last found the target in the 90th minute. From Rahim Nabi's cross, Odafa nicely chest trapped the ball before unleashing a thunderous shot that hit the roof of the net, to make the scoreline 2-0 in favour of McDowell Mohun Bagan.

Jose Barreto was rightly adjudged Man of the Match as he ended his illustrious stay in Mohun Bagan with his head held high.

Coach Prasanta Banerjee said after the match, "We wanted to win the match as a farewell gift to Jose Barreto, we are happy to get full points from this match. I feel we had a good team, but unfortunately due to losing points in some crucial matches, we finished in 4th position."

Regarding Jose Barreto, Prasanta said, "He is the best foreigner to have ever played in India. Determination, dedication and discipline has been the key to his success."

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